No Time Like The Present
by Biotite
Summary: Short oneshot. Hermione goes to a meeting in a book club, and quotes Isaac Newton, confusing the leader of the club. Ron disapproves, of course. Just something that popped into my head after studying too much.


"But Hermione!" Ron spluttered "you don't have the time for it!"

Hermione looked patiently, well, as patiently as was possible for a functioning human being, at Ron. "Don't you mind what I have time for or not, Ronald Weasley! Just because you want me to do your homework for you, it doesn't mean I have to."  
Ron had the grace to look slightly sheepish for a moment before he started mumbling something about "5 feet" and "McGonagall" and "bloody animate transfigurations" while Harry just smiled at Hermione and told her to have a good time.

Hermione exited the Gryffindor common room, and made her way to a usually unused classroom next to the library. The Book Society of Hogwarts was having an open house with the theme of "Quotes Important For Literature and Society As a Whole." As a self proclaimed bookworm and a lover of books both muggle and magical Hermione had decided to pop in.

They were about 15 in attendance, not surprisingly mostly Ravenclaws. The chairman of the club was a 7th year Ravenclaw called Henry Thales, a slightly snobbish pureblood, so Hermione feared that it would be solely magical literature.

Three hours later she concluded that she was right. Sort of. In fact, certain world famous muggle pieces were mentioned, but horribly misquoted, and Hermione started suspecting Henry to be a fraud. For instance he spent a good 20 minutes solely on "o, I am fortune's fool!" which, according to Chairman Thales, was the famous words spoken by Felix Aurum when he discovered how to produce the elixir of luck, Felix Felicis. The words were uttered after he drank slightly too much and made a fool of himself. Of this he supposedly said "all's well that ends well!" with a laugh. He transcribed these words into his personal diary, which was bought by a family member of Thales' after Felix Aurum died back in 1710 at the age of 100.

Hermione remembered both quotes from Shakespear and both were published around 1600. It was, of couse, possible that the lucky Aurum had just been quite the fan and affectionately borrowed from a famous poet, but that didn't make it acceptable to misquote him.

After a while Henry Thales got the "brilliant" idea, that everybody should share their favorite important quote. This took quite a while, as Thales supposedly knew all about every single quote, and excitedly discussed them to oblivion. After ten minutes of talk about "when the thestrals are visible, and the flashes are green" from the poetic works of Sarina Scamander, Hermione began to lose her focus. During her last summer home, she had found her parents' old book on physics from their time at uni, and had lost herself in it. She had brought a few books on physics to Hogwarts, and read them whenever possible. Much to Ron's consternation, of course. "Muggle what? Psy-essence? What is that?! Why, Hermione?" His eyes had been ready to pop out of his head. Especially when Harry had quietly told her that he thought it was quite interesting.

Now she was going over Newton's laws when she heard Henry Thales voice saying something to her. "…heard quite a bit about you. Brightest witch in your year, eh? So, tell us about your favorite quote that still has an impact on our world today."

"Umm…" _Crap_. She hadn't really given much thought to his request, but looking into his eager, blue eyes she went with the first thing that came to mind: "_For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction_." His eyes flickered for a moment before he said "ah, yes, quite a good one there. Do you also remember who wrote this and when?"

"Sir Isaac Newton." _World famous physicist. _"First published in 1687, I believe. He was quite far ahead of his time. Like Galileo."

While Hermione had spoken, Thales got back on (his rather deranged) track. "Ahh, yes, Newton and Galileo. Best of buddies, weren't they? And so ready for the future, indeed!"

"Actually, Galileo died the same year – " _Newton was born_, was what Hermione was going to say, but Thales raised his voice with a slightly frantic look in his eyes as he ended her sentence " – he published his greatest works as a tribute to his life-long friend Newton, yes. The quote is about how Light and Dark fights, and one will always push back on the other as strongly as it can."

"Umm, that's not – "

" – all, no! You certainly are bright! Also, it tells us how, when one duels, one must fight back with the same skill and ferocity as one's opponent, or the duel will be lost!"

After Hermione had tried to interject a bit of truth into Thales' wilder and wilder ramblings more times that could be counted on two hands, she decided it wasn't worth it.

When she got back to the common room, minutes before curfew, Harry and Ron were still in the same chairs. "So, how was it?" Harry asked.

Hermione threw herself in an adjoining chair with a groan. "Absolutely awful, Harry. Quite the waste of time, to be honest."

At this Ron looked up. "You should have stayed here instead then. Look at this mess I made!" he said, and waved an inkstained piece of parchment at her.

Hermione laughed at his desperate look, and grabbed the parchment. "Relax, Ron. I'll take a look at it. Better late than never."

"Right you are, Hermione. And there's no time like the present."


End file.
